March Marches On!

It is so hard for me to believe this month is almost gone! I think the older I get the faster time passes....and it's leaving me in its dust. I have been busy stitching, mostly for gifts and exchanges. A few of them have arrived at their destinations, though, so I think I will post a few pictures. I have received some lovely things as well, so today is Show & Tell!

First is the Hooked on Exchanging Scissors Fob package I put together for Nela in Venezuela. It was my first exchange and I had great fun checking out her likes on her blog, shopping for her and choosing the design to stitch. I used a chart from a kit, changing it a little to look like her cat, Minina. I gathered from her blog that she really liked cats, roses and the color pink, so my theme was set. I was so excited to get it sent off to her, posting it a little early and sending it International Priority so it would arrive in 6-10 days.....and the weeks dragged on....and on....and on......I began to panic and decided to start over and resend. The very day I had decided to start restitching the fob, I heard that the package was being held in customs so I had to send Nela a list of everything in the package so she could claim it. That was no problem, but I felt like it somewhat spoiled the surprise for her. I 'm so sorry it was such a hassle for her to receive it - I hope that she feels it was worth it. And finally, today, I have word that she actually has it all in hand!!!

While I was waiting for my scissor fob for Nela to reach her, my own fob exchange package arrived from Melissa. It's a Drawn Thread design stitched on R&R fabric with silks. She also sent some extra goodies - some calico fabrics, Dark Chocolate Peppermint Stick Cappuccino mix and some cute Mary Engelbreit notecards and sticky notes - way too cute! THANK YOU, MELISSA! Here is a picture of the whole package and one of the fob attached to a pair of my scissors.

Now I'm waiting for my biscornu package to make its way to my exchange partner. I thought it might arrive today or tomorrow. In the meantime, I received my biscornu from the exchange from Perri in Australia. It came in a brightly colored gift box with purple stripes and circles in several shades of pink. She sent a beautifully stitched and finished biscornu using a design from one of my friends (and favorite designers!), Barabara Ana! I read on the HoE blog that this is Perri's first exchange and she did a wonderful job putting together a special package. Along with the expertly done biscornu (Her blog tells me this is the first biscornu she has made, but you wouldn't know that from looking at it!), she also included a very generous piece of 32 count Summer Khaki Belfast linen, a skein of beautiful Australian hand-dyed size 8 pearl cotton, a package of Size 26 (my favorite size to use) Piecemaker needles and a really cute "Twisted Whiskers" spiral notepad. Thanks for everything, Perri!!

And speaking of Barbara Ana - she has some new designs out - you can preview them here. She also has a new freebie design available here.

Cheetah/Leopard Needlework Set - Biscornu

The final installment of the Cheetah/Leopard Needlework Set - the Biscornu!





Cheetah/Leopard Biscornu Top pdf

Cheetah/Leopard Biscornu Bottom pdf

Cheetah/Leopard Biscornu Bottom 2 pdf

Roberta's Cats Biscornu

Here is a biscornu to match the Roberta's Cats Scissors Fob. A friend has requested one with bunnies so I will try to work on that one and one with dogs this week. They will use the same color scheme so they will also match the Roberta scissors.






Roberta's Cats Biscornu pdf

Needlework Set - Part 3 - Biscornu

Stork Scissors Biscornu Side 1 pdf


Stork Scissors Biscornu Side 2 pdf

My apologies for the quality of the chart - seems my printer is running out of ink - I may have to rescan and post if anyone has trouble with it. Let me know!

***Edited*** Pdf files have been uploaded for the charts.

Roberta's Bunnies Scissors Fobs & Biscornus

The series continues with the bunny versions that my friend Barbie requested. There are several variations of these and I couldn't decide which ones I liked best so I'm posting all of them.

Roberta's Bunnies Scissors Fob Front

Roberta's Bunnies Scissors Fob Back pdf

Roberta's Bunnies Fob 2 Front


Roberta's Bunnies Fob 2 Back


Roberta's Bunnies Biscornu



Roberta's Bunnies Biscornu 1



Roberta's Bunnies Biscornu 2

Another Exchange Reaches Its Destination

Cathy B sent a message that my biscornu for her did arrive yesterday, so it is okay for me to post the pictures now. I'm sorry to say my pictures don't really do it justice, the Swarovski crystals that add so much to the beauty of the piece don't show very well in the photos. It was the first biscornu I have ever made and I may make more some time. I would much rather maker scissors fobs though.

And here is a picture of the entire exchange package that I sent. The Little House Needleworks chart was from Cathy's wishlist - I was hoping she hadn't already received it from someone else.

Roberta's Pups Scissors Fob and Biscornu

I just love working with these colors! (It made perfect sense when I realized they match the colors in my blog!!) Anyway, here are the Roberta's Pups charts as promised. I'm also experimenting with posting the charts as pdf files instead of the jpegs. Please let me know which is preferred. I think the pdf's are better and easier to use and have wanted to post that way for a long time, I just hadn't taken the time to set everything up to do so. What do you think?


Roberta's Pups Scissors Fob Front


Roberta's Pups Scissors Fob Back


Roberta's Pups Biscornu

"Guiltless" Dragonfly Biscornu and Needlecase

I thought I would round out the "Guiltless" Dragonfly set with a biscornu and needlecase. I guess I need to do the same for the Hummingbird set!

I am always amazed at how much difference a few stitches can make. I changed the corners slightly for these charts but if you already stitched the fob and want the outline corners to match it, here is the corner variation.

Beautiful Finishes from Sheila

Sheila B sent photos of the beautiful biscornus she stitched using the Roberta's Flowers Biscornu and Guiltless Dragonfly Biscornu charts. They are just gorgeous and beautifully made! Thank you so much, Sheila, for sharing your beautiful work! I hope everyone will take a few moments to visit Sheila's photo albums - she has lots of great finishes to see - lots of biscornus and other stitching and some absolutely spectacular beadwork!

I have been so busy with work, the Tiny Treasures Exchange and now traveling to visit my family that I am sadly behind on posting all the lovely photos that have come in the last couple of weeks - a situation I am hoping to rectify this weekend. I must apologize to all the generous stitchers that have kindly shared their stitching photos and are patiently waiting for me to post them. I intend to have them all up before the end of the weekend and hopefully a new chart as well. Thanks for visiting!

Hummingbird Biscornu & Needle Case

Here are the biscornu and needle case charts to complete the Hummingbird Set.

Roberta's Flowers Scissors Fobs and Biscornus

The Roberta's Flowers Scissors Fobs and Biscornus close out the Roberta series. All of these charts can easily be adapted to work with the other Gingher Designers Series Scissors by just changing the colors to match the particular scissors you wish. I keep thinking I will work up a color chart for each pair (it's on my "To Do" list!)....well, one of these days....! I would love to see what you come up with!



Roberta's Flowers Scissors Fob Front



Roberta's Flowers Scissors Fob Back



Roberta's Flowers Fob 2 Front



Roberta's Flowers Fob 2 Back



Roberta's Flowers Biscornu 2



Roberta's Flowers Biscornu

Needlework Set - Part 1 - Scissors Case

Today's chart is for a scissors case. I think 16ct or 32ct over two threads will probably work best. There will be matching scissors fob and needlecase charts (maybe a biscornu as well?) over the next few days. The small dotted line is not stitched it is just to show the fold line for the flap and the larger dashed line is just to show the point that the flap will overlap to on the front.

Cheetah/Leopard Needlework Set - Needle Case

Here is the matching Needle Case for the Cheetah/Leopard Needlework Set. That just leaves the Biscornu to post, hopefully I will get that done sometime today!




Cheetah_Leopard Needle Case pdf

April Away!!

Either days are getting shorter, time is moving faster or I'm living in a time warp of some kind. How can it already be the end of April?!? I am just squeaking in a post before the end of the month, yet again. I have taken in a few baseball games (I love baseball!) and I've been busy stitching and project planning, chart designing, working and doing various other activities that seem to make the days fly by much too quickly. Most of my stitching has still been for exchanges and gifts, so not much to show yet. I can show a picture of the replacement I stitched for the HoE Biscornu exchange for Annette because her original partner has gone missing (I hope everything is okay with her - I think she is in the military, so maybe she has had to be away on assignment). Anyway, Annette posted yesterday that it had arrived. I hope she likes it, I didn't have much time to figure out what she really likes. I seem to be stuck on purples, pinks and periwinkle blues right now - so I hope she likes the colors.

I had planned to post some charts this month - one each week. It's a little late for that now, so I will just post them all at once. These are more of the old charts that I designed for a monthly kit series for a local needlework store several years ago. I have taken them out of mothballs and updated the charts a little. I still have the needlework set so I took some photos of it to post but the Best Mom Needleroll model was never returned to me so I don't have a picture of it.